"Raising up a prophetic generation to speak with the empowered voice of Heaven."

Thursday, January 10, 2019

When Life Heats Up

When Jan and I visited Venice, Italy we did what most tourists do, we took a gondola ride, ate great Italian food and enjoyed the unique architecture of a romantic city built along beautiful canals. During our time in Venice, we also took a water taxi to the island of Murano and toured the glass factories where beautiful blown glass creations have been made for the last 1,000 years. The photo I attached is a vase we bought from one of the factories.

As I watched the artisans create their blown glass masterpieces, I was amazed that melted silica, when exposed to intense heat, could become such beautiful works of art. I watched the craftsmen blow air through steel tubes while balancing a glob of hot melted glass at one end inflating and expanding the glass with their breath while forming the object's shape with special tools and adding touches of color.

The process reminded me of our lives and how in some seasons, we can feel like we have been reduced to a hot glob of unformed glass not knowing what the end product will become. Life can heat up and melt what we have come to know as our definition of reality leaving us feeling formless and not at all like a potential work of spiritual and emotional art that someone would buy and take home as a treasure.

If your life is heating up and what you have known has melted under the intense heat of opposition, loss or an imposed change, remember this, God is always up to something good beyond your ability to imagine a beautiful outcome.

During the process of reforming your life, God will be faithful to recreate in you what does not seem possible in human terms. He will breathe His breath into your soul inflating you like the craftsmen on Murano did when they created our vase. A capacity you did not know was possible will be given to you when this painful time is finally over.

With God, there is hope that when your life heats up and melts before your very eyes that something beautiful is possible. When God is finished recrafting your life you will become a priceless work of grace having spent time in the skillful hands of a loving God.

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A New Book - The Sound of Reformation

A reformation is taking place in the Church. In this reformation we will rediscover the simplicity of our mission and calling. In The Sound of Reformation, Garris explores the purpose and product of the five equipping gifts found in Ephesians 4 then links the impact of that training and equipping to a unique place on the 7 Mountains of cultural influence. As you read this book you will rediscover the beauty and transforming power of a simple faith.